Monday, April 18, 2011

Recently I had a meeting in London Ontario. I happened to be in a coffee shop drive-thru when I glanced over at the plaza next door and saw a classic case of inconsistent logos representing a business. In this case it was a local pizza chain. The sign on the building differed from the logo on the street sign and the portable sign also had another image. Later in the day I saw a delivery vehicle of theirs, and as you may have guessed - it too had a different variation of the logo. That was four different image directions. You probably wondered how this happens? It has everything to do with a company not having any brand standards. Every supplier, comes up with their own individual solution. The pizza management allows this freedom. All of it contributes to confusing their customers.

A client of mine recently had a local sign company try and break their logo into separate pieces in the development of new signs. We quickly halted that. Their comment was that they had twenty-years experience in the sign business, and even multi-nationals have allowed this practice. Can you imagine McDonald's or Harley allowing their logo parts to be taken apart and re-assembled at the discretion of the sign compan? Not in a million years.

In the case of the pizza stores, management should pick one configuration and lock it in as their standard. As they grow their franchise, consistency makes them money and builds trust. Much like the golden arches are a beacon for McDonalds, similar brand standards also make it easy for customers to findthem. Standards in every aspect of the company builds a trust and loyally among customers.